The 17-21 English County Challenge (ECC) took part the weekend of 6th & 7th of April at York RI.

Northumberland entered a team into this event which consisted of players not eligible to play at ICT.  So we were able to call on former junior players and a couple of players who now are students either at Northumbria or Newcastle Universities to take part in this event. . 

Team:  Ellen Davison  (Captain), Sian Phillips, Charlotte Graham, Lucy Dearing, Alex Dalton (Captain), Tim Bodani, Finlay Smith and Tom Hunt. See photo below

Teams were seeded using the latest individual player gradings/rankings as published by BE on Tournament Software.

Format for each match consisted of six events Men’s & Women’s singles; Men’s & Women’s Doubles and a mixed. 10 Teams took part and were split into 2 groups of 5 counties on Saturday – results below:

Northumberland v Kent 2 – 4 Lost
Northumberland v Lancs 5 – 1 Won
Northumberland v Yorkshire 0 – 6 Lost
Northumberland v Devon 3-3 Draw

The team finished 4th in the group so Sunday’s draw would see them playing for 5th to 8th place. Sunday – results from matches below.

Northumberland v Herts 4-2 Won; Northumberland v Yorkshire 3-3 Draw; Northumberland v Worcester 4-2 Won

The team’s final place was 6th.

Great performance by this team and the highlight has to be a draw with Yorkshire.

Dates for this tournament next year is 12th/13th April – I’ve already entered a team!!